Who wants their own flood wall box of flowers?

Tuesday

Nov 5, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Members of the Central Park Neighborhood Association (CPNA) took time out from cleaning the flower boxes and planting flower bulbs on the flood wall on Saturday, Nov. 2, to explain their future plans for this area.

Bev Darrbev.darr@courierpost.com

Members of the Central Park Neighborhood Association (CPNA) took time out from cleaning the flower boxes and planting flower bulbs on the flood wall on Saturday, Nov. 2, to explain their future plans for this area.Pat Yapp and Jenie Barta, members of the Hannibal Aesthetics Committee with CPNA, explained that the CPNA is beginning a project to have each of the boxes along both flood walls sponsored by a family, business, club, class or another group.On Saturday they and 18 other volunteers did a fall “cleanup” of the flower beds, ornamental shrubs and rose bushes on the flood wall between Broadway and Center Street. Later the CPNA will lead a similar cleanup of the (former) herb boxes on the flood wall between Hill and North streets.The CPNA organization is hoping find sponsors for all 17 boxes (the total on both flood walls). The long narrow boxes along the edges are divided into three sections.Each sponsor will “commit to one box” of flowers and other greenery, Yapp said, adding that perhaps “a restaurant could grow herbs, or a family could have flowers and come pick them.” The flood wall is not for vegetables, she noted. By committing to tend just one box, Yapp said, “it would not be overwhelming to come in and plant what they want.”Barta said “it is our hope that they commit to taking care of the box, and we hope to put a sign at each box” with the sponsor’s name. She added that the sponsors will be told what bulbs have been planted, and what flowers are already there, “and they can plant around those.”Barta was pleased to report that five boxes have already been sponsored. They are among the 11 boxes on the Broadway flood wall, and the flood wall between Hill and North has another nine boxes.The first five sponsors are Dimensional Hair, Aunt Polly’s Treasures, Dubach Inn, Jeff and Anna Thomas, and Martha and Richard Poole and their children.Anyone interested in sponsoring one of the flower boxes may call Pat Yapp at (217) 799-6086 or Jenie Barta at (573) 231-0918.On Saturday, the volunteers cleared out the past summer’s growth, trimmed rose bushes and bagged a truckload of yard waste. They were also planting hundreds of flower bulbs, including tulips, daffodils and irises. Some bulbs had been donated. The Hannibal Parks & Recreation Department provides mulch for the flower beds and also provided about 380 of the bulbs.Not everyone was working on the boxes. Nora Creason was using an edger to edge the sidewalk on the flood wall.As Candace and John Klemann worked, Candace explained that it has four main drought-resistant plants: Russian sage, lavender, coreopsis and gaillardia.Among the group was Georgia Sauer of Chicago, who joked that she came a long way to work on Hannibal’s flood wall. Sauer was visiting her “best friend since seventh grade,” Pat Yapp.Some families were helping with the cleanup. Martha Poole and her three daughters, Emmy, Sarah and Hannah, were busy pulling weeds and planting tulip bulbs. Emmy had already been in the youth deer hunt earlier Saturday.Also helping with the cleanup Saturday were Lou Barta, Bruce Anton, Clark and Maria Cruikshank, Mike Dobson, Jeff and Anna Thomas, John Bales, and Steve and Kristine Russell.Yapp said the cleanup is not the only way the CPNA has been invovled with the flood wall - the members had also planted some of the flowers.Barta emphasized that the flood wall cleanup “is just one of the things this group (CPNA) is doing.” Anyone interested in joining the CPNA is invited to contact Yapp or Barta and attend the meetings. The association meets at 7 p.m. on the last Monday of each month at the Hannibal Arts Council.See “Seen on Scene” photo gallery for more pictures.